Community colleges announce partnership with University of California in effort to increase transfers

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Community colleges across California are in a partnership with University of California (UC) campuses to try to increase transfers to different UCs. The proposed Enhancing Student Transfer memorandum is focused on creating guaranteed admission for eligible community college students who are looking to transfer.

While six of the nine UC campuses currently have transfer guarantee programs, the new transfer guarantee will apply to all nine UC campuses. The transfer rates have declined 1 percent since 2011 according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The Enhancing Student Transfer will be utilized by students who have completed a UC pathway at their community college and have the needed GPA to transfer.

California Community College chancellor, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, said in a statement, “Community college students who transfer to UC campuses do as well, or sometimes better, academically, as students who start their studies at a UC.”

Many community college students, including Bakersfield College (BC) students, transfer to Cal State University (CSU) campuses instead of UC’s. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the CSU transfer rate has grown 14 percent since 2011, showing the increase in CSU transfers compared to the decrease in transfers to UCs.

For most BC students, CSUB is located closer to home, and paired with the lower cost of tuition, it is harder for transfer students to make the choice of going to a UC instead of a CSU. Despite the high increase of transfers to CSU campuses instead of UCs, the current memorandum and plans to increase transfers and admissions to UCs have been ongoing since 1996. Because of the efforts to increase transfers, transfers have begun to increase since 2013.